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Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Dr. Kewalramani called me today regarding my low white blood count. He made the point that it wasn't "real low", but that we need to monitor it. I am going to have blood counts at two week intervals. If the count doesn't go up in four to six weeks, I'll have to have a bone marrow biopsy to try and find out what's up, rule out any pathology, etc.

I've had bone marrows three times, and they are not too bad, and don't take long. But it is an invasive procedure and I'd like to avoid it. So I'm going to start mentally talking to my bone marrow to get a move on and start turning out more wbc's!

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Had a blood count today, and my white blood cell count continues below normal (1.9), as well as some of the component numbers being low. This is despite having the antibiotic switched from Bactrim to Mepron.

Nobody seems to be able to pinpoint why the numbers are low; they have been for months and I haven't contracted any infections, so it may not be real important.

I expect to talk to Dr. Kewalramani in the next day or two about it.

Otherwise I feel fine. Am back to about 90% in the gym - didn't go today though.

Well according to the Washington Post in it's editorial today, things aren't getting any better. Still a Genocide

IT'S BEEN MORE than three weeks since a Darfur peace accord was signed, bringing hope for an end to the genocide in Sudan's western territory. Since then the news has been terrible. The two rebel factions that refused to sign the peace deal have continued to snub it. Violence between rebel factions has generated blood-curdling attacks on civilians. Human Rights Watch has reported fresh evidence of atrocities committed by government-backed Janjaweed death squads across the border in Chad. The cash-strapped U.N. World Food Program has been forced to reduce the already meager rations it distributes to 6 million Sudanese, including 3 million in Darfur. And Sudan's government has waffled on the crucial question of whether it will allow in an expanded peacekeeping force, without which violence, hunger and mass death are likely to continue....

...The U.S. government has described the killing in Darfur as genocide, a term that Sudan's government rejects and that the United Nations and Europeans have also shrunk from using. The more that the conflict in Darfur features infighting between rebel factions rather than just atrocities by the government's militia, the more observers may resist pointing the finger at the government and accusing it of genocide. But the reason that Sudan's government is culpable, today as in the past, is that it is deliberately creating the conditions in which thousands of civilians from rebel-aligned tribes are likely to die. First the government and its militia drove these people from their villages. Then it impeded humanitarian workers so that thousands of them fell prey to disease or starved. Now it is obstructing a serious peacekeeping deployment, with the result that its victims will continue to face shortages of medicines and food.

This may not be genocide by gas chamber or machete. But it is still a calculated policy of targeting ethnic groups and planning, meticulously, to eliminate them.

The pendulum of public support seems to be swinging in favor of nukes. Even some Greenpeace people are coming around!

Opinion polls suggest public attitudes toward nuclear power are shifting. Support for expanding the use of nuclear energy has grown from 43 percent to 55 percent in the past three years, according to surveys by the Gallup Organization. The Pew Research Center found rising support in the past few months as gasoline prices have soared, from 39 percent last September to 44 percent in February. Still, 49 percent remain against expanding nuclear energy.

"It's still a controversial issue," said Pew Executive Director Andrew Kohut, "but it might have a little wind in its sails, given people's concerns about energy prices."

Some environmentalists, including Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace, have changed their minds as well, seeing nuclear energy as clean compared with fossil fuels that pollute the environment. Other environmentalists complain that Bush is overselling any benefits from nuclear power and underestimating the risks.

"Despite the billions of dollars in subsidies and a new public relations campaign, the Bush administration cannot change reality: Nuclear power remains a dangerous, uneconomical and polluting energy source," said Michele Boyd, an energy specialist for Public Citizen.

I don't know about the danger. How many people have died in just the last six months in coal mining disasters?

We had an excellent dinner Saturday night with our friends the Novotnys and the Riners. We went to a French restaurant in Yonkers, which is relatively new and has developed a fine reputation. And it was packed.

Monday, May 29, 2006

UPDATE: 5-30-06 Here's the picture of Tim that I couldn't post yesterday, and that should have gone below.

Here's a picture of Tim at the end of the Ossining Memorial Day paraade this morning. His scout troop, troop 49 sponsored by St. Augustine's school, always marches in the parade. By coincidence Tim was carrying the big flag for the cub scouts at the end of the two an a quarter mile walk, entering Nelson Park from the back.

Well, no picture. Typepad is acting funny and I currently cannot post images, despite trying this morning and this evening!

The point of this post was going to be about my father, Joe Faranda, who spent three years in exotic places like New Guinea and the Philipines during WW 2, and then as an additional bonus got two years in Korea (for obvious reasons, my father had an aversion to camping in his later years). North Korea invaded the south while my parent were on their honeymoon, and my father's National Guard unit got called up rather quickly. But not before I was on the way.

I was actually past a year old before my father first saw me in the flesh.

I was then going to mention how pleased my father would have been if he'd ever met his two adopted grandsons, Joe and Tim. But he never saw either of them - Joe arrived two months after my father died, and Tim three and a half years later.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

The "Super 14" provincial competition consists of the top 14 provinces in New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. They all play each other once, and then the top four teams go into a playoff. The finalists this year were two New Zealand teams, the Canterbury Crusaders and Wellington Hurricanes.

Unfortunately the final as a spectacle was ruined by an amazing fog that rolled in an a hour before the kick-off. Spectators on one side of the stadium at times could not see the other side of the field.

The match was won by Canterbury 19-12.

The following picture (note the fog!) shows Chris Jack of Canterbury flying high in a lineout. He gets the elevation by leaping while simultaneously being lifted by teammates. Jack is about 6'6", so his head has to be about ten feet off the ground.

Lineouts occur when the ball goes out of bounds. Both team's forwards (think lineman in football)form lines perpendicular to the line of touch (out of bounds line) and then a player from the team that did not put the ball out of bounds throws it down the middle, between the two lines. Lineout play is very complex, with signals where the ball is going, and a high degree of coordination between the thrower and catcher. And then plays developing off the lineout.

By the way, the player on the right wearing #9 is the scrum-half, the position I played for 20 years. In many ways, the most interesting position on the field, since you are usually in the middle of the action, and handle the ball more than any other player.

Here's an interesting opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal from a fellow who owns a tutoring company in NY City. Free access on their opinionjournal site, and especially worth reading if you've got young children. OpinionJournal - Taste

The explanation is much more straightforward. The average American receives a pretty mediocre education. The average SAT score drifted down from 1000 in the 1960s to 880 in 1993. Education activists attributed this plummet to cultural factors, a change in the testing pool and other matters. The blame was placed everywhere but on schools. That the quality of education in America declined from the 1960s to the 1990s was hardly noted in debates over the SAT.

And then the test was "recentered." Thanks to the change in the SAT scale and the change in the kinds of questions that were asked on the test, scores went up and people were able to ignore the fact that most students are not well-educated. Indeed, parents compared their children's scores with their own and concluded that their children were brilliant. Now ETS has made it a little harder to get away with not knowing your three R's.

People complain that the SAT is biased and that the bias explains why students don't do well. That's true--it is biased. It's biased against people who aren't well-educated. The test isn't causing people to have bad educations, it's merely reflecting the reality. And if you don't like your reflection, that doesn't mean that you should smash the mirror.

That the new SAT tests more reading comprehension than the old test did is a good thing. Colleges complain that their incoming students don't have sufficient skills to read and analyze the kind of material that their professors will assign them. I hope that the new SAT's emphasis will make students realize that you can't get much of an education if you can't read.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

After a 15-minute digestive period, participants completed a variety of computer-based neuropsychological tests designed to assess cognitive performance including memory, attention span, reaction time, and problem solving.

"Composite scores for verbal and visual memory were significantly higher for milk chocolate than the other conditions," Raudenbush told Reuters. And consumption of milk and dark chocolate was associated with improved impulse control and reaction time.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Scroll down, and a bit below my picture you'll see "Categories". The only category is "My lymphoma and related medical stuff". If you click on that, only the lymphoma-related and a few other health-related postings will appear! My other ramblings, family stories, and mediocre jokes will be gone.

Then go to this January 8th posting, Tom Faranda's Folly: Four months of journaling that gives links to 13 earlier posts. These posts will give you a good picture of my chemo treatment prior to the Sloan Kettering admission with the stem cell transplant. The 13 posts take a total of about 20 minutes to read. Of course, feel free to read the many other posts in the first four months, if you are so inclined.

I mentioned on the 16th that my bloodwork that day was fine, except for the continuing below normal WBC (white blood cell) count. So Dr. Kewalramani decided to take me off the antibiotic Bactrim and put me on a different antibiotic, called Mepron. His feeling was that I've been on the Bactrim so long, and it might be depressing the WBC count.

The antibiotic is the only medication I am on, and it's strictly a preventative measure. I was taking th Bactrim as one pill, three days a week (M-W-F). The Mepron is different - I take it twice a day, every day.

And it's weird stuff. It comes in little 5 ml. pouches as a thick liquid. Very bright yellow (you don't want to get it on your clothes) and tastes pretty bad. I just squeeze it out of the pouch.

Dr. K had me skip bloodwork this week, so I'll have a complete blood count (CBC) next Tuesday.

The gym is going well (although I've gained several pounds, which I don't want to do!!!) and for a current picture, scroll down to the next post.

I went into Manhattan today. I was down in the financial district for the first time in quite a while - probably 18 months.

The purpose was to have lunch with three people I used to work with, as we celebrated the engagement of one of them, Tish (as in Patricia) Lent. I met Tish Lent about 11 years ago. For awhile she was the secretary for Tom Corwin, while he was an investment specialist. I have known Tom for almost 25 years. He recently "retired" but is actually still working with his clients.

The third person was Ricky Thomas, who I've known at least 15 years, and who now runs his own hedge fund.

A slight shuffling of names yields the four T's: Tish Tom Tom and Thomas!

So we met up and had a fine lunch at some sidewalk bistro, a block or so off Broad Street. Tish is getting married in November to a guy ("Owen") she knew in grade or high school and then ran into a couple of years ago. As often happens in these reunion lunches we kicked around lots of names of people who'd come and gone from our former marketing group, which was first The Kronish Agency and later The Norton Group. Where are they? how are they doing (how are we all doing!)? That sort of stuff. An excellent long lunch.

So here's Tom and Tish (middle of the street at Broad and Wall),

Here's Ricky:

Tom Again,

Now here's Tish. By the way, Tish (or Tisha) is a very funny lady. She probably could have made a living as a stand up comedienne.

And here's Tish and meself. Note my hairline!

Tom and Ricky figuring out the bill - looks like a Laurel and Hardy routine

And then we were off our separate ways! With the usual comment "We'll have to do this more often."

Kerbouly said he was an Iraqi customs agent along the western border with Jordan and was in a position to know who was entering and leaving Iraq, and to kill them if it suited al-Qaeda's purposes. Among his targets was a Jordanian truck driver who, he said, hauled goods to Americans in Iraq.

"His name was Khalid al-Dasouqi," Kerbouly recalled in a flat tone. "He said, 'What will you do?' I said, 'I will kill you.' He started to beg me, 'Please, do not kill me,' and so I said, 'I must kill you.' He kept on begging me, and I pulled my personal pistol and said to him, 'Say your prayers.' He said them as he was begging.

"Immediately I shot him twice in the head. I left him in that spot and he was handcuffed and blindfolded. I made sure that he was dead, put his passport and papers over him and went away."

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Forbes has an interesting article on the former V.P. He's done very well since 2000. According to the article, at that point he was down to his last $800,000. Gore, Inc. - Forbes.com The print version of Forbes had a pretty good picture of Mr. Gore, but unfortunately it's not in the web version.

At age 58, Gore certainly had the potential to do a Nixon and win the White House eight years after losing.

To access Forbes articles, you may have to register but "it's free and easy."

Monday, May 22, 2006

Yes, it's hard to believe, but the man who was the Democratic party presidential nominee in the 1972 election, and was crushed by Tricky Dick Nixon has gone through an epiphany. Or so it appears, in this LA Times op ed published today. The end of 'more' - Los Angeles Times

Amazing. Here's excerpts (but read the whole article):

It can be galling to hear companies argue that they have to cut wages and benefits for hourly workers — even as they reward top executives with millions of dollars in stock options. The chief executive of Wal-Mart earns $27 million a year, while the company's average worker takes home only about $10 an hour. But let's assume that the chief executive got 27 cents instead of $27 million, and that Wal-Mart distributed the savings to its hourly workers. They would each receive a bonus of less than $20. It's not executive pay that has created this new world.

I understand the attraction of asking business — the perceived "deep pockets" — to shoulder more of the responsibility for social welfare. But there are plenty of businesses that don't have deep pockets. And many large corporations operate with razor-thin profit margins as competitors, both foreign and domestic, strive to attract consumers by offering lower prices.

The current frenzy over Wal-Mart is instructive. Its size is unprecedented. Yet for all its billions in profit, it still amounts to less than four cents on the dollar. Raise the cost of employing people, and the company will eliminate jobs. Its business model only works on low prices, which require low labor costs. Whether that is fair or not is a debate for another time. It is instructive, however, that consumers continue to enjoy these low prices and that thousands of applicants continue to apply for those jobs.

Well, it may be premature to tip off Joe Torre, but Tim had his pitching debut this past Saturday. I missed it, but Brigid was there. He's in the third grader league, whatever that league level is called. Up until the week before, the coaches were doing the pitching.

Anyway, he struck out the first two batters he faced, walked the next one and then - another strike out.

So he struck out the side. Major league pitchers have long careers and make lots of money. Hmmm.

Here is Tim in a prior game, playing third base. He's the only guy in the four team league with black baseball pants!

This article will only be free on the NYT website for a week. I have archived a copy online and you can email or post a comment asking me to forward it.

Here are some excerpts:

Now those final moments are a focus of new attention as hospices broaden their range of services, inspired by a growing body of research on the very end of life. More are encouraging the calming properties of music, meditation, aromatherapy and massage for both patients and families. Some are increasing the training for so-called 11th-hour companions who families can request be with them. ...

Greg had survived 15 years with AIDS and related cancers. When his doctor said further treatment would be useless, Mr. Torso enrolled in hospice, and welcomed extra help from Mr. Fersko-Weiss and 29 specially trained volunteers who call themselves doulas.

That is a Greek term for women who serve, more commonly at home births to assist both midwife and mother. But the guiding philosophy is the same and borrows from Eastern religions: to honor the end of life as well as the beginning.

Friday, May 19, 2006

This is pretty startling - quotes from a columnist I admire - about Iraq. Like a broken record. It's been a long six months.

"The next six months in Iraq—which will determine the prospects for democracy-building there—are the most important six months in U.S. foreign policy in a long, long time." (New York Times, 11/30/03)

"What we're gonna find out, Bob, in the next six to nine months is whether we have liberated a country or uncorked a civil war." (CBS's Face the Nation, 10/3/04)

"Improv time is over. This is crunch time. Iraq will be won or lost in the next few months. But it won't be won with high rhetoric. It will be won on the ground in a war over the last mile." (New York Times, 11/28/04)

"I think we're in the end game now…. I think we're in a six-month window here where it's going to become very clear and this is all going to pre-empt I think the next congressional election—that's my own feeling— let alone the presidential one." (NBC's Meet the Press, 9/25/05)

"We've teed up this situation for Iraqis, and I think the next six months really are going to determine whether this country is going to collapse into three parts or more or whether it's going to come together."(CBS's Face the Nation, 12/18/05)

"We're at the beginning of I think the decisive I would say six months in Iraq, OK, because I feel like this election—you know, I felt from the beginning Iraq was going to be ultimately, Charlie, what Iraqis make of it." (PBS's Charlie Rose Show, 12/20/05)

"The only thing I am certain of is that in the wake of this election, Iraq will be what Iraqis make of it—and the next six months will tell us a lot. I remain guardedly hopeful." (New York Times, 12/21/05)

"I think that we're going to know after six to nine months whether this project has any chance of succeeding. In which case, I think the American people as a whole will want to play it out or whether it really is a fool's errand." (Oprah Winfrey Show, 1/23/06)

"I think we're in the end game there, in the next three to six months, Bob. We've got for the first time an Iraqi government elected on the basis of an Iraqi constitution. Either they're going to produce the kind of inclusive consensual government that we aspire to in the near term, in which case America will stick with it, or they're not, in which case I think the bottom's going to fall out." (CBS, 1/31/06)

"I think we are in the end game. The next six to nine months are going to tell whether we can produce a decent outcome in Iraq." (NBC's Today, 3/2/06)

"Can Iraqis get this government together? If they do, I think the American public will continue to want to support the effort there to try to produce a decent, stable Iraq. But if they don't, then I think the bottom is going to fall out of public support here for the whole Iraq endeavor. So one way or another, I think we're in the end game in the sense it's going to be decided in the next weeks or months whether there's an Iraq there worth investing in. And that is something only Iraqis can tell us." (CNN, 4/23/06)

"Well, I think that we're going to find out, Chris, in the next year to six months—probably sooner—whether a decent outcome is possible there, and I think we're going to have to just let this play out." (MSNBC's Hardball, 5/11/06)

All about "The Da Vinci Code" phenomenon and people's willingness to accept conspiracy theories. An excerpt:

Here's my theory of "The Da Vinci Code." Dan Brown was sitting one night at the monthly meeting of his local secret society, listening to a lecture on the 65th gospel, and he got to thinking: "I wonder if there's any limit to what people are willing to believe these days about a conspiracy theory. Let's say I wrote a book that said Jesus was married. To Mary Magdalene. Who was pregnant at the Crucifixion. And she is the Holy Grail. Jesus wanted her to run the church as a global sex society called Heiros Gamos, but Peter elbowed her out of the job. Her daughter was the beginning of the Merovingian dynasty of France. Jesus' family is still alive. There were 80 gospels, not four. Leonardo DiCaprio, I mean da Vinci, knew all this. The 'Mona Lisa' is Leonardo's painting of himself in drag. Da Vinci's secret was kept alive by future members of 'the brotherhood,' including Isaac Newton, Claude Debussy and Victor Hugo. The Catholic Church is covering all this up."

Then Dan Brown said softly, "Would anyone buy into a plot so preposterous and fantastic?" Then he started writing.

The real accomplishment of "The Da Vinci Code" is that Dan Brown has proven that the theory of conspiracy theories is totally elastic, it has no limits. The genre's future is limitless, with the following obvious plots:

Bill Clinton is directly descended from Henry VIII; Hillary is his third cousin. Jack Ruby was Ronald Reagan's half-brother. Dick Cheney has been dead for five years; the vice president is a clone created by Halliburton in 1998. The Laffer Curve is the secret sign of the Carlyle Group. Michael Moore is the founder of the Carlyle Group, which started World War I. The New York Times is secretly run by the Rosicrucians (this is revealed on the first page of Chapter 47 of "The Da Vinci Code" if you look at the 23rd line through a kaleidoscope). Jacques Chirac is descended from Judas.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Here is a very good article in Christianity Today - a mainstream Evangelical Christian publication. It's not a short article, but if you are interested in contemporary culture, Chrisitianity and and issues like "lost" gospels, it's very worth reading. Jesus Out of Focus - Christianity Today Magazine

An excerpt:

Since the earliest years of the church, Christian leaders have had to confront rival accounts of Jesus' life. These were Gospels that refashioned Jesus' life, often giving it a spin palatable to the Hellenistic trends of the day. From about A.D. 125 to about A.D. 600, people with active religious imaginations wrote numerous Gospels. As Origen of Alexandria wrote in his Homily on Luke, "The church has four Gospels, but the heretics have many."

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

However this morning I managed to get the old refrigerator that was in the garage out to the curb (and take the doors off!!) in fifteen minutes. And I did it all myself. Or 98% myself.

That's my brother Jim's car in the background - he's in Bolivia on business right now. The green garbage can is ours! Note the hair.

The refrigerator was here when we bought the house twenty years ago. The Kelliher man told us it was at least 35 years old and no longer showed on his "charts." I guess they don't make 'em like they used to. Two years ago it moved to the garage as our storage fridge, and died about a month ago.

Going, going, gone.

Don't know why I've made such a big deal of disposing of a refrigerator!

Who sent me the Ronald Reagan talking doll? Yup. I have some good ideas on who sent it and will track you down.

If you push the button on his back, Ron spouts one of his many memorable phrases ("Go ahead and make my day").

Here's what I'm going to do: leave him in the box (as we should all know from the movie Toy Story, figures left in their boxes are worth a lot more to collectors), and then in about thirty years, sell him and reap millions in profits!

Trailing 9-0 after two innings yesterday, the Yanks won 14-13 gainst the Texas Rangers. Here's the story, with high drama - big defensive play at the plate by Jorge Posada and then a two run homer by Posada in bottom of the ninth to win it. Yankees Stage Comeback for the Ages.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

The CBC came out about like last week - WBC's at 2.0 with most of the components within normal limits, and my red blood count, hemaglobin and platelets all OK. Not sure if Dr. Kewalramani will want me to have another blood test next week. I am sure he'll call me in the next day or two.

I did wake up today with a nasty-looking left eye, quite red. My eyes have been bothering me off and on for a couple of months, and I've been using the steroidal drops I was given a year ago for a similar problem. A couple of days use cleared up the problem, and then it came back a week or two later.

So this time I went to see the opthamologist (Dr. Bauer, in new office digs in Hawthorne). He said I had the same epi-sclerotic infection that I had when I saw him a year ago. It is of the auto-immune variety, which simply means they can't tell the cause.

Anyway he prescribved the same steroidal drops, only used with much greater frequency, and for a whole week. I've been using them for seven hours (one drop once an hour for the first two days) and the eye already feels and looks better.

One myth currently popular on the political right is that the immigration debate pits populist conservatives in the Ronald Reagan mold against Big Business "elites" who've hijacked the Republican Party. It's closer to the truth to say that what's really being hijacked here is the Gipper's reputation....

To Reagan, the conservative optimist, immigration was a vital part of his vision of this country as "a shining city upon a Hill," in the John Winthrop phrase he quoted so often. It was proof that America remained a land of opportunity, a nation built on the idea of liberty rather than on the "blood and soil" conservatism of Old Europe.

This view was apparent in Reagan's public statements well before he became President. In one of his radio addresses, in November 1977, he wondered about what he called "the illegal alien fuss. Are great numbers of our unemployed really victims of the illegal alien invasion, or are those illegal tourists actually doing work our own people won't do? One thing is certain in this hungry world: No regulation or law should be allowed if it results in crops rotting in the fields for lack of harvesters." ...

In 1980, according to the book "Reagan: His Life in Letters" (page 511), the then-Presidential candidate wrote to one supporter that "I believe we must resolve the problem at our southern border with full regard to the problems and needs of Mexico. I have suggested legalizing the entry of Mexican labor into this country on much the same basis you proposed, although I have not put it into the sense of restoring the bracero program." The bracero program was a guest-worker program similar to the one now being proposed by President Bush. It was killed in the mid-1960s, largely due to opposition from unions.

During the same campaign, circa December 1979, the Gipper responded to criticism from conservative columnist Holmes Alexander with the following: "Please believe me when I tell you the idea of a North American accord has been mine for many, many years. I have seen presidents, both Democrat and Republican, approach our neighbors with pre-concocted plans in which their only input is to vote 'yes.'

"Some months before I declared, I asked for a meeting and crossed the border to meet with the president of Mexico. I did not go with a plan. I went, as I said in my announcement address, to ask him his ideas -- how we could make the border something other than a locale for a nine-foot fence." So much for those conservatives who think the Gipper would have endorsed a 2,000-mile Tom Tancredo-Pat Buchanan wall.

It's true that in November 1986 Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which included more money for border police and employer sanctions. ... But even as he signed that bill, he also insisted on a provision for legalizing immigrants already in the U.S. -- that is, he supported "amnesty."

In his signing statement, Reagan declared that "We have consistently supported a legalization program which is both generous to the alien and fair to the countless thousands of people throughout the world who seek legally to come to America. The legalization provisions in this act will go far to improve the lives of a class of individuals who now must hide in the shadows, without access to many of the benefits of a free and open society. Very soon many of these men and women will be able to step into the sunlight and, ultimately, if they choose, they may become Americans."

Yes, times change, and it's impossible to know what precisely the Gipper would do at the current moment. But judging from these quotes and so many others across his long career, we feel confident in asserting that Mr. Bush and those who support more open immigration are far closer to Reagan's views than today's restrictionists are.

The current immigration political panic is not unlike many in America's past, including a couple while Reagan was in public life. He always avoided the temptation to join them, no doubt realizing that they were short-sighted politically, and, more important, inconsistent with his vision of America as the last best hope of mankind.

I don't think I've mentioned rugby in months - since I was in Sloan Kettering in January. Since then, the French have won the Six Nations Crown, while the Irish took the Triple Crown (beating ye olde enemy England in the last two minutes).

The Super 14 Provincial championship in the Southern hemisphere has come down to the semi-finals. It used to be called the Sper 12's but was expanded by two provinces this year. The standard of play is very high - the top five provinces in New Zealand and South Afirca, and the top four in Australia, all playing each other.

The New Zealand rugby union posted a brief (about five minute) video of last year's Super 12 semi-finals and finals. You can see it here if you have a broadband connection. AllBlacks.com Video

Sunday, May 14, 2006

I feel fine. In fact I feel 100%, except when working out in the gym, when I feel 80-85%.

I have gotten to the gym five days a week for the past two weeks, and am shooting for six days this week. Yesterday (Saturday) I rode the stationary bike for 24 minutes, stretched for 12 minutes and then used the ellyptical machine for 20 minutes. I was pleased because the resistance settings were my same pre-chemotherapy settings. However it did tire me out more then it would have pre-chemo. Friday I rode the bike, stretched and then used the weight machines. in terms of volume of work on the machines, I am at about 85%.

The only glitch is my continued low white blood cell (wbc) count. This past Tuesday it was only 1.9, with the low end normal being 4.5. However the wbc components were all within normal limits. Go figure. The docs aren't worried, but I will have another complete blood count on Tuesday. They also discontinued the acyclovir, the anti-viral medication they like to keep you on for a few months after chemo. Evidently acyclovir taken for long periods can lower your wbc count.

One other little thing. My fingernails still refuse to come in normally. They crack and chip, developing ridges across them. Unsightly and slightly annoying, but no real problem.

This morning as we were setting out for church around 10:30, Joe went to say good morning to our guinea pig Vindabel, and found her quite still, inside the small house in her cage. She must have died in the early hours of the morning, as she was cool to the touch and starting to stiffen up.

This is a bit of a shock since she seemed absolutely fine yesterday, and was only about two and a half. I thought guinea pigs had a four to five year life expectancy!

Guinea pigs are actually great pets. They're soft and cuddly, don't smell, don't make a mess, and require relatively little care. Just feed them and clean the cage every so often. They make these funny chirping sounds and are nice to have around.

Here's a photo of Vindabel, and then an explanation about her name.

Tim is (was) the nominal owner of Vindabel. Awhile before the guinea pig arrived, Tim bought a puppet-witch at school. When we asked him the name of the witch he thought for a few moments and then said "Vindabel." When we got the pig, we thought that would be a great name for her, and Tim agreed.

Tim was upset this morning (as were all of us). Brigid had already left the house to pick up my mother for Mass, so when we got to Church I told Tim to stay outside of Church to tell them the sad story. Tim told Brigid, but then asked Brigid to tell Grandma, because "every time I start to say the name Vindabel, I start to cry."

We (actually Brigid) dug a nice hole for Vindabel in the animal cemetery (birds, gerbels, etc) next to the house, put in some alfalfa and flower petals, and put a large, flat stone on top. Vindabel won't be forgotten soon.

Unfortunately the Times only allows free access to their articles for one week - after that you either have to pay a small fee for access or $50 a year to join Times Select. I have archived a copy of this article and can email it to anyone who would like it. Just leave a comment or email me.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

It is full of hope that Newark will experience a renaissance, as a new mayor (37 year old Cory Booker) takes over. I hope so. I know Newark quite well, having several clients who own businesses there. For the last twenty years Mayor Sharpe James ruled the roost. Now Sharpe James made people like former Mayor Marion Barry of Washington DC (remember him?) look like St. Vincent De Paul. How did the man, who never worked in the private sector, manage to accumulate all those houses, and boats, and cars?

I was at a fundraiser for St. Benedict's Prep - an inner city high school in Newark - a couple of nights ago and several people (including the Headmaster of the school, Fr. Ed Leahy, OSB, speaking from the podium) seemed hopeful for positive change. Fr. Ed even used the term "a renaissance."

GM has announced they will cease production of the flagship of the Hummer line next month. The H1 is really the civilian version of the military humvee. GM will continue to produce the much more popular (and smaller) H2 and H3 models. (FULL DISCLOSURE: to my environmentally sensitive friends - Faranda's lease a Mercury Mountaineer and own a 2000 Dodge Caravan).

And here's some excerpts from the NY Times article. Note what it costs today to "fill 'er up":

Despite its $140,000-plus price tag, rough ride and a fuel economy rating of about 10 miles a gallon, well-heeled buyers and celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger snapped up the H1 when it first reached the market in 1992.

"It started out as a huge image boost for G.M. — everyone knows what a Hummer is," said Ron Pinelli, the president of Autodata, an industry statistics firm in Woodcliff Lake, N.J.

About 12,000 H1's have been sold to the public, including 4,000 by G.M., which bought the marketing rights to Hummer from A.M. General in 2000.

Since then, G.M. has added two slightly smaller Hummers, the stately H2, introduced in 2002 and the relatively petite H3, which went on sale last year.

Perhaps because there are more choices of Hummers, or because H1's moment of military chic simply has passed because of the conflict overseas, sales of the H1 have plummeted.

G.M., which sold 875 H1's in 2000, sold just 374 in 2005, and 98 in the first four months of 2006, according to Autodata.

With diesel fuel prices around $3 a gallon, it costs more than $150 to fill up the H1's two gas tanks, which together hold 51.5 gallons.

And with G.M. on a push to recast its image as a green company, "it's time for it to go away," Mr. Pinelli said of the biggest Hummer.

Here's a really good column in the Wall Street Journal on chasing the religious vote, on both the right and the left.OpinionJournal - Taste

So why doesn't Mr. McCain just go to Wheaton? Or Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago, whose 7,000 members more closely mirror mainstream evangelicals? Or Saddleback, the Southern California church led by Rick Warren, whose "The Purpose Driven Life" has sold more than 20 million copies? Or how about a meeting of World Vision, a Christian relief organization operating in 99 countries?

John C. Green, a pollster and senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, tells me that "there are lots of other places that Sen. McCain could go where there wouldn't be the downside" associated with Mr. Falwell. Mr. McCain could still appeal to "the religious right" by talking to what Mr. Green calls the "centrist" evangelicals.

The majority of these centrists, like the traditionalists, oppose gay marriage and abortion on demand. The religious differences between the groups lies, according to Mr. Green, "in emphasis and tactics." Centrist evangelicals are less likely to explicitly proselytize and to announce that non-Christians are going to hell. They've tried to bring greater racial diversity to their churches, believe in a broader role for women in society, and are more likely to view homosexual behavior as a discrete sin rather than to blame homosexuals as a class--for, say, terrorist attacks. Mr. McCain may feel he has to go to Liberty because he has criticized Mr. Falwell in the past, but it's hard not to wonder whether the senator is just digging himself in deeper.

When it comes to religious tone-deafness, of course, Mr. McCain has plenty of competition. A spate of books, including "Thy Kingdom Come: An Evangelical's Lament," "The Left Hand of God" and my favorite, "Jesus Rode a Donkey," explicitly state that Democrats made a mistake by offending religious folks in 2004. Now they want to show how a good Christian should be a good leftist.

"Please help me build an alternative to the Religious Right--before it's too late!" That was the subject line of an email from Rabbi Michael Lerner, the editor of Tikkun magazine and onetime adviser to Hillary Clinton, advertising his new "Network of Spiritual Progressives." Like his colleague Jim Wallis, the evangelical editor of Sojourners magazine, Rabbi Lerner has an agenda that sounds suspiciously identical to that of the Democratic Party. OK, it's actually sillier. Aside from wanting to pull out of Iraq immediately, raise taxes and increase government-funded social services, Rabbi Lerner wants to "seek a New Bottom Line in the Western world so that institutions get judged . . . [by] the extent to which they maximize love and caring."

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

First off, you probably should ignore the joke just below, which is not really in the spirit of the journal! Then scroll down, and a bit below my picture you'll see "Categories". The only category is "My lymphoma and related medical stuff". If you click on that, only the lymphoma-related postings will appear! My other ramblings, family stories, and mediocre jokes will be gone.

Then go to this January 8th posting, Tom Faranda's Folly: Four months of journaling that gives links to 13 earlier posts. These posts will give you a good picture of my chemo treatment prior to the Sloan Kettering admission with the stem cell transplant. The 13 posts take a total of about 20 minutes to read. Of course, feel free to read the many other posts in the first four months, if you are so inclined.

A Texan Is drinking in a New York Bar. He gets a call on his cell phone. He hangs up, grinning from ear to ear and orders a round of drinks for everybody in the bar because, he announces, his wife has just produced a typical Texan baby boy weighing 25 pounds.

Nobody can believe that any new baby can weigh in at 25 pounds, but the Texan just shrugs, "That's about average back home, folks. Like I said, my boy's a typical Texan baby boy."

Congratulations showered him from all around and many exclamations of "WOW!" were heard. One woman actually fainted due to sympathy pains.Two weeks later the Texan returns to the bar. The bartender says "Say, you're the father of that typical Texan baby that weighed 25 pounds at birth, aren't you? Everybody's been makin' bets about how big he'd be in two weeks. We were gonna call you ... so how much does he weigh now?"

The proud father answers, "Seventeen pounds."

The bartender is puzzled and concerned. "What happened? He already weighed 25 pounds the day he was born.

The Texan father takes a slow swig from his Lone Star, leans in to the bartender and says, "Had him circumcised."

Monday, May 08, 2006

Of course anything is possible and the Democratic Party could take over the house and senate in November. It is an in-between election (in between presidential elections) and the out of power party typically picks up seats in the 'tweener years (2002 was an exception as the in-power Republicans did quite well).

But it strikes me that they are peaking too early. Or at least, they are celebrating almost exactly six months too early. There's nothing like overconfidence.Confident Democrats Lay Out Agenda

I don't think it's real bright to be saying things like this:

Pelosi denied Republican allegations that a Democratic House would move quickly to impeach President Bush. But, she said of the planned investigations, "You never know where it leads to."

Sunday, May 07, 2006

That's the bridge from Wolf cub scout to Webelos. This evening was the blue and gold dinner, attended by scouts and their families (over 200 people) at St. Augustine's school hall. The cub scout program is five years, and Wolf scout is year three (third grade). Webelos is two years, grades four and five.

The scouts symbolically cross a bridge as they are promoted from one level to another.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

A new peace agreement has been signed by some of the parties in the Sudan. The Wall Street Journal is skeptical the agreement will hold; read why - OpinionJournal - Hot Topic

An excerpt:

A larger problem is the unwillingness of the international community to treat Sudan as the outlaw state it is.... More broadly, the Darfur crisis is a reminder that the very institutions that, prior to the Iraq war, were said to be the only legitimate arbiters of international intervention turn out to be the least helpful when intervention is most needed.

At a regional level, the African Union has done what it can to broker peace and has sent a poorly equipped and operationally limited 7,000-man force to police Darfur, an area the size of France. The AU's efforts are at least well-intended. This is more than can be said for the Arab League, which held its most recent summit in Khartoum and has backed Mr. Bashir to the hilt.

America's allies in Europe have rejected an Administration proposal to deploy NATO forces to Darfur. The U.N.'s humanitarian agencies have done yeoman work to feed and shelter refugees. But the Security Council has been unable to impose broad and effective sanctions on Khartoum thanks to Chinese and Russian opposition.

This leaves the United States, the only country in the world with the capability and, potentially, the will to aid Darfuris and every other group threatened with genocide or brutal oppression. President Bush has certainly been engaged with the crisis in Darfur, more so than any of his alleged moral betters in places such as France and Sweden. Yet having endured so much opprobrium and resistance to his last two acts of international hygiene--the liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq--it's no wonder he's reluctant to carry another burden, particularly when American interests are not directly at stake.

There's a lesson here for all of those liberal internationalists who now demand the Administration "do something" in Darfur: If you want to stop genocide, don't shackle the world's only policeman.

MADISON, Wis. - The state Legislature moved Thursday to give voters a say on whether Wisconsin should lift its 153-year-old ban on the death penalty, the longest state ban on the practice in the nation.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

I saw my transplant doc, Dr. Kewalramani yesterday (Tuesday) and got a good report on my CAT scan from last week. The only issue was that I had some congestion or fluid or something in my chest, but he wasn't concerned about it. No problem with my lymph nodes at all.

So I have been released from the transplant service, and will probably resume seeing the lymphoma Guru, Dr. Zelenetz, in about three months. In the meantime I will have some periodic blood counts done, and Dr. K will speak to me by phone about them, as well as see the general oncologists at the Sleepy Hollow branch of Sloan Kettering. My port will stay in until my last Rituxin treatment in three months, and then I'll have it removed.

So, pretty good news. I must say, I feel fine. My trip to Disneyworld gave me some color, and I have gotten to the gym four or five times a week in the past four weeks (except for the six days at Disney, when I only went once). As far as fitness is concerned, I've got a long way to go to achieve my pre-chemo conditioning, but there's no rush, and I feel completely back to normal.

Here's an opinion piece by Fr. Robert Sirico, president of the free-market oriented Acton Institute, who feels public funding (with tax dollars) of religious charitable organizations is not a good idea.

Monday, May 01, 2006

My twelve year old Joe and I both travelled to the Darfur Rally in Washington DC yesterday (Sunday). Darfur of course is part of the Sudan, where there has been two years of genocidal violence, resulting in 200,000+ deaths and over a million displaced and homeless refugees. Having only sent a few emails to the Prez and congressman about the situation, I felt I should get off my duff.

The Rally idea was aimed to draw attention to the situation and try to get more out of the UN and the US government - to end the mess and aid the displaced. Politicians, human rights workers, and religious leaders spoke; nobody bombed and many of them were quite good.

I believe the bulk of the participants were from Reformed Jewish synagogues - the most "liberal" wing of the Jewish spectrum. They had clearly taken the lead in organizing the Rally - I travelled with a group of 12 from my Church (Holy Name of Mary) on a bus with 44 total travellers, organized by the Reform Synagogue in Croton. We got to the Rally (It was at the Capital building end of the Mall) way early and so were able to spread our blankets out less than 100 yards from the podium.

According to all three papers, the organizers originally got a permit for 10,000-15,000 people. The Washington Times quoted organizers saying 75,000 people showed up, but that is standard organizer exggeration. But I'm sure there were 15,000 people, and probably more like 20,000. The mall area reserved for the Rally was packed, and there was a good deal of overflow to the sides and some in the back.

The theme of the Rally was "we need a UN multinational force of 10-20,000 to quell the violence", but that is very problematic. The UN doesn't want to step on the toes of the African Union and they are cool to outside intervention. I would be quite happy if we (USA) took unilateral action but that's not going to happen either.

Here are some pictures:

The first speaker was Elie Weisel - that's him up on the big screen.

Before the Rally got underway, a group of Darfurians currently living in Portland Maine walked around the Rally with banners and chants like "no, no, genocide, no no genocide" and "we love USA, we love USA..."

You may not be able to make him out, but former NBA star Manute Bol is speaking in the center of the podium. Manute is originally from Darfur. Anyway a good view how thick the crowd was, and an idea on where we were.

Here's a view of seven six and a half of us - the ones who hadn't fallen asleep or gone for a walk. The half lady on the right, in blue, is my friend Jean Marie Gagnon, who lived in Africa for eleven years (Peace Corp).

We got home just before midnight, having left Croton at 6AM. I was glad that Joe felt it was worthwhile.